About this blog

I am an advocate of radical social and political reforms for Sri Lanka. This blog will shock most Sri Lankans. Expect nothing less. I will make no apologies for the things I say here. I may play devil’s advocate and defend ideas that I don’t personally endorse, but I will not mention which are which.

Reformation vs. Metamorphosis

The social/economic/political problems this country is facing cannot be solved by any single administration because solving them will take longer than the maximum term any administration can serve. It cannot be done in six or even twelve years. At minimum, it will take one generation — approximately 25 years.

Political and economic reforms by themselves will not solve the problem. The core of our problem is social. The political and economic systems that we've allowed ourselves to get trapped into are a symptom of this core problem, not its cause. Ours is a problem of ideology — the way we think. Until that is changed in a drastic and radical way, we cannot hope to sustain any sort of political or economic reform even if we manage to actually implement them. What we need is not reformation, but a complete, gradual metamorphosis.

Reformation: Personal and Systemic

A society is reformed through two converging movements of reformation: one, personal reformation and two, systemic reformation. Neither can achieve any lasting success without the other. A brilliant social/economic/political system will fail in the hands of scoundrels. Even the most virtuous person will be eventually broken by an improper system.

There are different degrees or levels in each type of reformation. For example, it's easier for you to change the way you brush your teeth each morning than to change your deepest beliefs about good and evil. Similarly, it's easier to change the way a license application form is processed at a government office than to change the constitution or develop a new one based on new moral principles. Between these two extremes (under both types of reformation) we get a whole spectrum of reforms of varying degrees of difficulty.

I believe that we should start at the lower levels of each of the two 'avenues' of reformation. That is the realistic and practical thing to do. Dramatic changes will be quickly reversed if either the people or the 'system' is not ready for them. Lasting changes depend on firm foundations, not on coups or revolutions. When revolutions DO work, it's because they're the culmination of years of foundation-laying.

The biggest challenge in making reforms is to not choose the wrong ones. No reform at all is better than a bad reform.

Comments: Please send comments, thoughts and ideas to greenhornet.lk AT gmail.com. I may choose to either ignore them, answer them, post them on the blog in part or in whole, expand on them or refute them, depending on how relevant I think they are to my objectives.

A radical and open-minded blog that I am glad I bumped into on a lost web trail.

After a long overseas life, residing and trotting around in several countries, I feel a resurgence of interest but this time with bias thrown to the wind.

Your perspective finds irresistible acceptance in me now than it would have 42 years ago when I was gullible to propaganda serving others. Platforms that fired up emotional outbursts were the order of the day then and I guess, still is. Just before I left Lanka, I participated in a multi-racial shramadhana work camp which probably laid the foundation to my slow revival lasting to this day.

I will return to read more and if you would permit, pen a comment or two. God bless.

About Greenhornet

I am an advocate of radical social and political reforms for Sri Lanka. This blog will shock most Sri Lankans. Expect nothing less. I will make no apologies for the things I say here. I may play devil’s advocate and defend ideas that I don’t personally endorse, but I will not mention which are which.

Comments: Please send comments, thoughts and ideas to greenhornet.lk AT gmail.com, or use blog comments (which may or may not be published).